5
May
Posted by marvinhaines in Family, Home Projects, MBC. Tagged: deck building, landscaping, MBC IT. Leave a Comment
Apparently I am very bad at this blog thing! I have no idea if anyone actually reads this or not but here is what I have been up to lately.
The first part of April we spent landscaping our yard. We did some landscaping last year but never really finished the job.
In April Michelle and I took a trip to the gulf coast of Florida. It was so much fun! The weather was awesome and we had such a great time exploring the area. Part of our goal of the trip was to find areas we really liked so we can buy a vacation house down there at some point in life. Our real goal is after the kids are off to college we can move there!
When we got back from Florida we started working on building a deck in the back of our house. It has been quite the project and taken much longer than I anticipated. I hope to have it finished up this coming weekend if it would just stop raining!!!
Well that is it for now. We have been quite busy lately. Along with all of this I am trying to organize two new campuses opening at our church as well as getting our budget together for next year. I need a break!
24
Mar
Posted by marvinhaines in MBC, Work. Tagged: basecamp. Leave a Comment
So we in the MBC Operations Department have started using Basecamp to track all of our projects. For those of you who don’t know what it is you can see it here.
I must say that I really do like using Basecamp so far. It is a pretty well know project management tool that many top companies use as well. The one thing I have noticed is that we have a lot of projects going on! It seems like everyday I am adding something to the “On Hold” list. It always amazes me how much we actually have going on. People always ask me how I stay so busy working at a church. My answer to them is that my job is no different that a IT job at a Fortune 500 company. We have the same needs, the same type employees BUT we don’t have enough budget or enough employees to help us! To me that is what makes my job interesting. It is up to me to figure out how to do the things we need to do with no budget and no resources. While some might think this is very stressful I find this being in my comfort zone. I get antsy when something goes easy! I know I am weird but that is how I roll!
Anyway all of this to say that I really do like Basecamp. It gives our Senior Management a great overview of all the tasks we have going on and also reminds us that no matter what we are going to be busy! 
16
Mar
Posted by marvinhaines in General. Tagged: Denny Edelbrok, GMU, National Trumpet Competition, NTC, Trumept. Leave a Comment
Well folks another National Trumpet Competition (NTC) is in the books! What a great weekend we had. In my personal opinion organizationally it was the best NTC to date. The concerts were amazing and our staff did a great job with everything! It is fun to be a part of such a great organization. We took hours of video of this past weeks event and I am excited to get all of it online as soon as we can! It is going to be great to watch those Junior Division Final performances again! Thanks to everyone who helped…and now this starts the beginning of NTC 2010!
5
Jan
Posted by marvinhaines in General, Home Projects. Leave a Comment
Ok so I admit…it has been forever since I blogged about something! One of my New Years resolutions is to write more on here so we will see how it goes!
I can’t really pinpoint what I have exactly done over the last couple months. It seems like a blur! With Thanksgiving, Christmas and everything in between our lives have been very busy. The holiday season was a lot of fun this year. The kids had a blast and I was able to see all my grandparents and some extended family a couple weeks ago. You can see pictures from our Christmas celebrations here.
Over the next couple of months I have some pretty big projects at home lined up. We are going to install a sprinkler system in the yard and also finally build a deck on the back of our house. We are very excited to get started and I hope to have things finished up before the warm weather gets here so we can really enjoy our new deck!
At work I have several big projects to manage. First is our computer rotation plan. We will be swapping out about half of our fleet of PCs and Macs. It is going to be a huge project but it is always a blast to play with the latest and greatest technology! Also our Prince William Campus is gearing up and I will be managing the Information Systems deployment there. We hope to be in our new campus by Easter.
Well that is about it for now. Lots more to follow!
29
Sep
Posted by marvinhaines in Financial. Tagged: financial bailout, financial crisis, mortgage loans, sub-prime mortgages. Leave a Comment
So this morning as I sit less than 20 miles from the US Capital Building, the House of Representatives is about to vote on the Financial Bailout plan. While many think this is a good thing, I think that if this bill passes it is going to signify the beginning of the REAL financial crisis of the US economy. Why do I think this? Well because now the US Government is going to help all of the companies and individuals that started this whole crisis by setting a precedence that if you make a bad decision the US Government will be here to save you.
Lets take for instance the house that I live in now. It was built in 2005 which was the height of the real estate market boom here in the DC area. The couple that had the house built paid $745,000 for it and my guess is had one of the crazy mortgage loans that offered 110% financing, interest only payments, zero down payment and an interest rate of around 4%. If this was the case the couple financed $819,500 and had a mortgage payment of around $2,731/month. The couple closed on the house in March 2006. Now fast forward one year to March 2007. Their loan adjusts back to a 30-year fixed loan at a rate of 5.5%. Their payment jumps to $4,650/month. Panic sets in and foreclosure looms for this couple. It is about this time the real estate bubble is bursting because this same situation is happening for millions of other people around the country who were roped into these ridiculous loans.
Now it is September 2008 and here we sit. Banks or going under, the stock market is tanking and all of this because the banks and creditors decided it was OK to give consumers loans that they really could not afford. I am not blaming banks 100% for this. Why a consumer did not read the fine print of these loans or did not have enough common sense to see that in 12 months their loan payments were going to almost double is beyond me. It is however apparent to me that banks were making fortunes off of peoples stupidity. Now the Government wants to help all of the individuals involved which really ticks me off.
My personal opinion is that the Government needs to just let this whole situation correct itself. While I am mad that all of these big bank CEO’s and Executives are walking away with millions and millions of dollars I have little sympathy for all of the consumers that were sucked into the credit market. If the bailout plan passes, the economy is going to take longer to recover because when the Government intervenes, it always takes away from the natural supply and demand of the economy.
OK my rant is over. Now I have no choice but to leave things in God’s hands. It is great to have an opinion but God is untimately in control and knows exactly what is going to happen. I do pray for all of us during this crazy time.
9
Sep
Posted by marvinhaines in MBC. Leave a Comment
Well today marks a new era in the Haines household. Marcus went to school for the first time! He started his Tuesday/Thursday preschool near our house. He was very excited especially about his new shoes that he picked out. We took a few pictures so enjoy!
Marcus’ First Day of School
1
Sep
Posted by marvinhaines in Home Projects. Tagged: Areation, Overseeding, Scotts, Yard Service. Leave a Comment
Ok folks I have done it. I signed up for a lawn service! If you know me well our townhouse in Fairfax had the best lawn in the neighborhood. It was sort of my test bed for my skills at growning a law. Granted it was only about 15×20 it looked amazing! When we moved into our new house, our lawn was basically dead. We suffered through the beginning of this year with great anticipation of turning our yard around this fall. Last week Scotts came and areated and overseeded our yard. Now the waiting game beings! The worst part of all of this is watering the whole yard with my one sprinkler…it is only for a few weeks so we will suffer through it! We will keep everyone posted as to the progress of our new yard!
26
Aug
Posted by marvinhaines in Family. Tagged: camping trip, loft mountain, skyline drive. Leave a Comment
As I stated in my last post, we went camping on Loft Mountain this past weekend. It was a great time to get away and prepare ourselves for the craziness we are going to experience this fall! Our friends Cheyenne and Daniel came with us and it was great to hang out with them. We ate lots of great camp food and played games well into the night. The weather was fantastic and the views were absolutely beautiful. On Saturday night we drove to one of the overlooks on Skyline Drive where we sat and watched the entire sunset. It was really hard to come down out of the mountains back to reality but we feel very refreshed after a great weekend away. Here is a link to a few pictures from our trip.
Loft Mountain Camping Trip Pictures
22
Aug
Posted by marvinhaines in Family. Tagged: road trip, skyline drive. Leave a Comment
You might have wondered where I have been lately. Almost 2 weeks with no blog post!!
As you can see from the map I went on a very long road trip totalling 2313 miles! It was quite an adventure and lots of family drama was present during the entire trip. It was really good to see Michelle’s family though. As I write this Michelle and I are getting ready for another trip of our own without kids! We are headed camping on Skyline Drive this weekend with some friends of ours. It should be a really fun and relaxing time. Michelle and I decided that we needed a couple of days rest before the crazy events of the fall start in September. If I can get cell phone reception while we are camping we will post some highlights of our adventures. I am hoping the weather is nice so I can get some really good pictures!
